Benioff & Weiss Create CONFEDERATE

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This is quite big news in relation to the future of Game of Thrones-related projects. While we’ve previously reported on the fact that showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are stepping back in their involvement in future “successor” shows—they’ll have executive producer credits but won’t be involved in the day-to-day work and writing—it had been widely assumed they wanted to get away from TV and work on film; in fact, a few years ago they landed a deal to adapt a novel for movies.

So it’s with quite a lot of surprise that we learn that they are diving back into TV after Game of Thrones wraps up, and by diving we mean they’ll be showrunning and writing for this new original series, titled Confederate. According to the press release, posted below, it will begin production immediately following the final season of Game of Thrones.

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Yeah that is interesting for them. I thought they would have gone on to do something a bit smaller in scope. But congrats to both of them, They've done a mostly fine job on Thrones. Very interesting subject matter though, a bit too heavy for my blood.

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Ay-up the south won and slavery remains. Brought by the same talentless, ignorant, racist, sexist yahoos who brought us Got. In any case, the south couldn't have won because Lee's army got whipped, and the CSA was essentially nothing but the Army of Northern VA. If you don't believe me read a buncha military histories of the Virginia campaign. And the reason for that is that the CSA power elites didn't believe in government in the first place, and couldn't work together any better or effectively than the people in the White House right now do.

Killing black people at whim with impunity, raping black women anywhere anytime at whim without repercussion, raping black children without even being socially ostracized, torturing and incarcerating, using as unpaid labor black people who are prisoners of the entire slavery system, in obvs, an all white country, since slave labor makes immigration unattractive if not downright impossible, particularly color-coded slave labor, fills all the labor slots from housekeeping, to hair stylist to mechanic -- in a climate in which lynch nooses and random, arbitrary of killing of African Americans and threats to do so happen all the time -- can anyone with any sense of artistic talent and social conscience really think this thing which didn't happen and couldn't have happened is a good thing for popular entertainment and the nation?

Shame HBO and everyone involved, shame, shame, shame.

Edited July 20 by Zorral

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This scenario seems rather unlikely to me - there's very little chance that an independent Confederacy would survive the 19th Century intact, never mind into "modern times" (which allow for a lot of budget-saving convenience in film production). And the whole "What if the South won the Civil War?" scenario has been done to death, mostly badly, so it doesn't bode well for this attempt either.

I'm not going to dismiss it outright, and I'd probably watch the pilot episode. But my hopes aren't high - and not just because of what I said in my first paragraph. I'm not impressed with the original storyline creation that Benioff & Weiss have created for Game of Thrones when they ran out of book material, nor with their ability to execute a season-length storyline with such original story material. The show creates a lot of evocative and intense scenes and sequences, but not so great storylines in the past two seasons - and I could easily see that being a problem in "Confederate" as well.

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I wish them good luck with it but not sure if it will have a huge market outside the US - definitely won't have the global appeal Thrones did/has. It sounds a bit like Man in the High Castle (which I really like) - but that show, although mostly set in the US, is not about a US centric event.

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doesnt sound like something id be interested in watching, but people are way to quick to judge this before they have even written the first episode. If you dont like it, you dont have to watch it, simple. And if no one watches it the show will fail. But it sounds like since everyone is pissed off about this it will get a bunch of attention and end up getting alot of people to watch it lol.

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This is quite big news in relation to the future of Game of Thrones-related projects. While we’ve previously reported on the fact that showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are stepping back in their involvement in future “successor” shows—they’ll have executive producer credits but won’t be involved in the day-to-day work and writing—it had been widely assumed they wanted to get away from TV and work on film; in fact, a few years ago they landed a deal to adapt a novel for movies.

So it’s with quite a lot of surprise that we learn that they are diving back into TV after Game of Thrones wraps up, and by diving we mean they’ll be showrunning and writing for this new original series, titled Confederate. According to the press release, posted below, it will begin production immediately following the final season of Game of Thrones.

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Ay-up the south won and slavery remains. Brought by the same talentless, ignorant, racist, sexist yahoos who brought us Got. In any case, the south couldn't have won because Lee's army got whipped, and the CSA was essentially nothing but the Army of Northern VA. If you don't believe me read a buncha military histories of the Virginia campaign. And the reason for that is that the CSA power elites didn't believe in government in the first place, and couldn't work together any better or effectively than the people in the White House right now do.

Killing black people at whim with impunity, raping black women anywhere anytime at whim without repercussion, raping black children without even being socially ostracized, torturing and incarcerating, using as unpaid labor black people who are prisoners of the entire slavery system, in obvs, an all white country, since slave labor makes immigration unattractive if not downright impossible, particularly color-coded slave labor, fills all the labor slots from housekeeping, to hair stylist to mechanic -- in a climate in which lynch nooses and random, arbitrary of killing of African Americans and threats to do so happen all the time -- can anyone with any sense of artistic talent and social conscience really think this thing which didn't happen and couldn't have happened is a good thing for popular entertainment and the nation?

Shame HBO and everyone involved, shame, shame, shame.

Not sticking up for slavery, but this vision is a little over the top. The show their proposing is from the alternative history genre. People tend to ignore that slavery was a fact of WORLD HISTORY and was part of almost ALL economies worldwide up to 19th century. It is still happening today in other parts of the world. It is very difficult to have a conversation about it because people won't discuss it rationally. Yes, owning another human is despicable- in this day and age. But remember that some of our most honored fore fathers owned slaves because it was legal. The horror scenarios that you list were few and far between because you wouldn't treat your 'investments' that way.

The South came much closer to winning the 'War of Northern Aggression' than most people think. In fact, it probably came down to one 10 minute episode when Longstreet begged Lee to let him swing south with his cavalry and cut off the Union armies from Washington DC. Lee refused and made the biggest blunder of the war when he declared 'There is my enemy and there is where we'll fight!" (paraphrase) He proceeded to send Pickett in his fatal charge up the hill.

One of the oldest axioms: History is written by the victors. Be careful when people try to rewrite it.

Confederate is fiction. If you don't like it don't watch. Nothing to bundle your undies about.

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Not sticking up for slavery, but this vision is a little over the top. The show their proposing is from the alternative history genre. People tend to ignore that slavery was a fact of WORLD HISTORY and was part of almost ALL economies worldwide up to 19th century. It is still happening today in other parts of the world. It is very difficult to have a conversation about it because people won't discuss it rationally. Yes, owning another human is despicable- in this day and age. But remember that some of our most honored fore fathers owned slaves because it was legal. The horror scenarios that you list were few and far between because you wouldn't treat your 'investments' that way.

The South came much closer to winning the 'War of Northern Aggression' than most people think. In fact, it probably came down to one 10 minute episode when Longstreet begged Lee to let him swing south with his cavalry and cut off the Union armies from Washington DC. Lee refused and made the biggest blunder of the war when he declared 'There is my enemy and there is where we'll fight!" (paraphrase) He proceeded to send Pickett in his fatal charge up the hill.

One of the oldest axioms: History is written by the victors. Be careful when people try to rewrite it.

Confederate is fiction. If you don't like it don't watch. Nothing to bundle your undies about.

I disagree with the few and far in between comment. DNA companies like AncestryDNA and 23andMe have found that the average African American is about 20% European and the majority of it comes from a white male. There are many with a European haplogroup that comes from the male line. This European male ancestor is mostly going to either be the slave master, one of his relatives, or the overseer as most other whites didn't have access to slaves.It's actually very rare for an African American to not have any European DNA from slavery.

ETA:

Quote

Most African Americans know they have some European ancestry. It’s a vestige of slavery. But what can be surprising is what that mix of ancestry can say about social history in America.Previous published studies estimate that on average African Americans had about 82 percent African ancestry and about 18 percent European ancestry. But in self-identified African Americans in 23andMe’s database, Kasia found the average amount of African ancestry was closer to 73 percent.